Tyler Herro reaches huge scoring milestone in regional final

Tyler Herro reaches huge scoring milestone in regional final

Whitnall (Wis.) High School senior and University of Kentucky recruit Tyler Herro came into the year a longshot to reach 2,000 career points after missing a significant portion of his junior season with injury.

Tyler Herro makes lots of long shots.

The scoring machine logged another 34 points Friday night in the WIAA Division 2 regional final against New Berlin Eisenhower, part of a 64-50 win that gave Herro 2,012 points for his career. His Falcons head into a rematch with Pewaukee on Thursday in the sectional semifinal, a battle that Whitnall won late in the regular season, 75-72, and Herro had 39 points in that contest.

Since returning from a calf injury in early 2018, Herro has scored fewer than 30 points in a game just once — a 21-point performance against Shorewood on Feb. 16. In those 12 games, he’s averaged 38 points per game and has cleared 40 points five times.

Related

All told, the 2018 portion of his senior year has accounted for 23 percent of his career scoring total at Whitnall.

Herro made a name for himself as a freshman when he scored 15.8 points per game (363 total) for Whitnall, then took a serious lunge forward when he scored 649 points (24.0 per game) as a sophomore. He was limited to just 13 games as a junior, averaging 23.2 points per game but limited to just 301 total.

Herro also scored 45 points and reeled in a triple-double in his team’s March 2 win over Bay View in the regional semifinal.

According to the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association, 30 players had scored 2,000 points in state history, including recent players Kobe King of La Crosse Central, Reed Timmer of New Berlin Eisenhower, Trevor Anderson of Stevens Point, Henry Ellenson of Rice Lake and Diamond Stone of Dominican.

This year, three new names will be added to the list. Cedarburg’s John Diener and Kaukauna’s Jordan McCabe both achieved 2,000 career points on the same night, Jan. 12 of this season. Diener’s team was eliminated in an upset in the Division 2 regional final Saturday night, but McCabe and Herro could theoretically meet at the state tournament in Madison as contenders for the Division 2 crown. Both reached state two years ago when Kaukauna won the state title.